You are participating in a holiday gift exchange with a few classmates. You each write down your own name on a slip of paper and fold it up. Then all the students place their names into a single hat.

The mathematician, who liked to annoy friends with improvised brainteasers, thought for a moment or two, then raised a glass ...

Math is not everyone’s favorite, understandably. Hours of math homework and difficult equations can make anyone sour on the subject. But when math problems are outside of a school setting, there’s no ...

Jeff Smith's Math Puzzle for November 28, 2025 - Betsy Ross and George Washington debate the number of points for stars on ...

A math puzzle is a problem or challenge that requires mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills to find a solution. These puzzles can take various forms and often involve numerical calculations ...

OK, you’re pretty good at identifying the person in our weekly mystery photo contest. But how sharp are you at math puzzles? You can find out to the left. We present three puzzles that were provided ...

The inside of a bus may not seem like the ideal place to rekindle your interest in math, but a group of mathematicians is betting it will. Last month, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of ...

An important context for figuring out problems through reasoning is puzzle play, say researchers. Psychologists recently conducted a study that found two-four year-old children, who play with puzzles, ...